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Keynote Helps the MapPoint Web Service Stay Ahead of Performance Roadblocks

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- Oct. 19, 2004

- Keynote Performance Scoreboard and Diagnostic Services Pinpoint Potential Performance Problems
- MapPoint Web Service Exceeds 99.9% Availability Using Keynote Performance Scoreboard and Keynote Diagnostic Services for Service Level Management
- Highly Customizable Solution Fits Easily Into Microsoft's Performance Tracking Systems

Keynote Systems, the Internet Performance Authority®, announced that Microsoft Corp.'s MapPoint Business Unit has chosen Keynote Performance Scoreboard and Keynote Diagnostic Service (KDS) to track service level compliance in the unit's MapPoint Web Service operations center.

Keynote Performance Scoreboard is a customized portal for companies with multi-location and multi-property environments for the visual management of service level objectives (SLA). Performance Scoreboard allows operations centers to visually track service levels using a simple, easy-to-use portal to stay on top of performance and facilitate communications with other IT functional teams.

Keynote Diagnostic Services (KDS) provides Internet expertise from Keynote analysts to address complex performance problems, diagnostic capabilities to help IT teams perform root cause analysis and gain scripting support for advanced configurations and provides access to KDS analysts around-the-clock to accelerate problem resolution.

More than 15 million geographic queries hit the Microsoft MapPoint Web Service every day, supporting thousands of different mission-critical applications around the world. To ensure Microsoft's promises are upheld, the MapPoint Web Service uses the Keynote Performance Scoreboard and Keynote Diagnostic Service (KDS) to stay ahead of performance roadblocks with quick response to any potential problem.

MapPoint Web Service already used Keynote Transaction Perspective® to monitor the speed and reliability of transactions performed on the site from the end user perspective. So the MapPoint Business Unit chose Keynote's Performance Scoreboard built on the Transaction Perspective service to track service level compliance in its operations center. Microsoft also engaged Keynote's Diagnostic Service to provide assistance 24/7 with root-cause analysis of complex performance issues.

"It's essential that we are alerted of any potential problems as early as possible so we can fix them before our customers experience any performance degradation," said Gary Ide, operations program manager at Microsoft. "Service Level management with Keynote Performance Scoreboard and Keynote Diagnostic Services has helped the MapPoint Web Service exceed 99.9 percent availability over the past year."

"That kind of availability is the key to satisfied customers and saving money in performance penalties," said Dharmesh Thakker, senior product manager for enterprise solutions at Keynote. "Keynote's Performance Scoreboard has helped the MapPoint operations team keep tabs on their e-business applications at a high level, understand the level of performance being delivered to end-users and track SLA objectives, data center performance and network performance at a glance. Just as valuable as the product itself is the simple, straightforward development and implementation of customized changes. The Keynote Performance Scoreboard was customized, as it is for each customer, to fit neatly into Microsoft's performance tracking systems so that changes are a stress-free experience."

To deliver on that level of reliability means it is essential that the MapPoint operations staff is alerted to any potential problems as early as possible to prevent any down time. Using the Keynote Scoreboard potential problems are easy to spot, allowing MapPoint to see all the relevant details needed to fix problems quickly.

Keynote's Scoreboard has been instrumental in finding problems before they impact MapPoint Web Service service level agreements. Scoreboard's clean visual design allows any deviation from excellent performance to stand out instantly. Instead of sorting through a stack of alarm messages, operators see any incipient problem visually. Scoreboard makes it easy for the operations team to quickly spot those issues which threaten the MapPoint Web Service's SLA and it uses the same data that will be used at the end of the month for SLA penalty evaluation.

About Keynote

Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN - News), The Internet Performance Authority®, is the worldwide leader in e-business performance management services. Over 2,100 corporate IT and marketing departments and 19,000 individual subscribers rely on Keynote's growing range of measurement and monitoring, service level and customer experience management services to improve e-business performance by reducing costs, improving customer satisfaction and increasing profitability.

Keynote is viewed as The Internet Performance Authority due to the company's global infrastructure of over 1,600 measurement computers in more than 50 cities worldwide that capture and store on a daily basis over 40 million Internet performance measurements, frequent media citations quoting Keynote's Web performance data and analysis, the company's market-leading Web performance indices for vertical markets and leading customer research that provides critical business insight into online customer experiences, industry trends and competitive Web strategies.

Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.

Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (C) 2004 Keynote Systems, Inc.